The Newcomer
by Bureaucratic Bullet
Summary: Based on a short Story from R.L. Stine's own library, I've adapted it to Teenagers and elongated it since I wanted closure on this one so very much. Some may find it scary, but I was really going for 'intellecually simulating', so don't worry to much abo


24

The Newcomer

Things are rarely as simple as they seem. A good life is fraught with peril if the person could see from a perilous way. It is amazing how many easy things become difficult with a little opposition. Life is everywhere around us and stress with it, however things are rarely as simple as they seem and if we underestimate that fact bad things will follow.

One warm August morning a seventeen-year-old girl decided to go for a morning jog before school started. The real state of affairs was that she had decided to go for a morning jog every morning all summer long, however this was perhaps her eighth one and school had already begun. That was just the kind of girl she was, carefree and void of commitments, much less holding to them. The real reason was not necessarily the pleasant atmosphere that being up at six in the morning provides when you live in a temperate zone, but rather her alarm clock had gone off an hour early, and her full body wake up spasm, namely rolling off the bed, had left her awake and miserable. And so it could be said, she was awake, she was walking, and she was mildly enjoying herself.

During her usual stroll around the outskirts of town nothing out of the ordinary was ordinary and while on some of the more boring days that was unsatisfactory today was nice enough be normal. Hence she walked from her house to the old church, her first stop. It was a decrepit old shack of a place of worship, what was left and while some old ninnies shill kept up the graveyard around it, the building was ominous, and gave her the chills just looking at it. It was big though. Make not mistake of that. She still made it a stop on her excursion simply because she wouldn't have to go within a hundred feet of it, turning on a small path going through a stretch of woods, and ending up back on a paved road. All in all it didn't take more that fifteen minutes, however the real reason she took this particular route was because at the edge of the Culver wood, of which she had just walked through a portion, was an old house, almost as old as the church.

The Dobson house. That is to say _The_ Dobson house. It was three stories high and had a constant cloud of rumors perched about it. It was circa Eighteen fifty, and reflected a little fading Victorian era design, whereas over all it was impossibly haunted mansion material. Even though it was probably more ominous than the church she found it more inspiring than scary. However something a bit odd was happening today. There was a moving van in front of it.

There was ancient furniture strewn all about the dead lawn. It was heavy, the stuff you'd think to find in some of those European Mansions if you had never been to one. She heard a loud bang inside and somebody swear as loud as he could (without actually swearing louder,) that if his fellow didn't pay attention then he could go back to mowing lawns for a living. Due to its ancient nature and inconvenient location, it didn't have a carport, and the girl hadn't even known it had been for sale. As she made her way around the moving van, a twenty-footer, she saw a girl in the shadow of the front door. It was surrounded by forest and had always seemed to be shrouded in shadow, however the dark mist surrounding the girl seemed all the more mysterious. She didn't get a good look, because it was either stop jogging and stare, which might prove embarrassing, or keep jogging, and give a few good casual glances, which was perfectly explainable. She didn't want to be imposing. She wasn't that kind of girl… curious, to say the least, but not imposing. Not her.

Maddy Simon Ladies boy…

I knew there was something different about Helga the first time I saw her. She looked a little lost wandering the halls of school between first and second period. I would have helped her but I was a little late myself and had to rush up a couple of flights of stairs to make it to class almost on time. The teacher was cool, she didn't care if I was late as long as I was sitting down before she started talking, so it was no skin off my teeth. I did feel sort of bad for not helping the new girl. I knew she was new because I've lived in this town long enough, and know personally at least half of the five hundred kids who actually come to school, and have the general idea of what the rest look like. Helga looked like no one I had ever seen before. A Goth. But not one of the kind you laugh at when they tell you their dark lord will wreak their almighty vengeance upon whatever is bothering them _that_ day of the week. She had on this old black skirt, which was probably older than her. It stopped just inches above the floor and her feet were hidden so nearly I could describe the bottom of her shoe better than the top. And further more she was wearing a gray shirt, button up, and feminine trim. If it had been one of my friends I would have shouted, "Fashion Disaster!" at them, right then and there, but she had this aura about her that said quite audibly, 'not to be talked to.'

She made the look work somehow, but the most interesting thing about her must have been her face. She had black lips. Of course it was probably black lipstick, but initially they were very convincing. Her hair was dark as night, and was held up by a dark bit of sting, or ribbon, except for a dozen or so ringlets coming down around her face and neck. Her face was pretty but the only thing that didn't suggest she was a freak of nature was her pleasantly light skin. I didn't get that good of a look at her, I was in a hurry after all, but I got a much better chance a few minutes after the class started. She walked in and handed the teacher a paper.

"Check her out, Maddy," my friend Carrie said motioning toward the front of class with her eyes. I had been talking to her and it was a little shock to see the new girl talking to the teacher.

While they were quietly carrying on, I took the opportunity to gawk at her. Her pale gray blouse, tucked into her black skirt that had about a thousand ruffles in it like some ancient gown, her black lipstick and somewhat pale, but better described as pleasantly light skin. She had a timid look and even though the aura said, silence is golden, the face said, please don't hate me. I had put this together so far, just as the teacher began the introduction.

"This is Helga Neugenstrom. She just arrived in our pleasant town… just this morning was it?" she asked glancing back at Helga. An appropriate nod was the reply. "I'm sure you'll all help her to feel at home." She lowered her eyes and quietly walked over to a less occupied corner of the room and sat down, never looking up.

"Weird," Carrie said.

"Maddy!" the teacher called.

"Yes, Miss Wellington?" I said my sight snapping from the new girl to the teacher.

"Remind us again what an unction is?"

I hate English.

Strike One

"So much for staring at the new girl," I sighed to Carrie as we walked to our next class. I was headed toward math, which I shared with no one, and she was going to P.E.

"Yeah you really need to work on that vocabulary," she said with an evil grin. I gave her a shove.

"You were a lot of help. Honestly, I don't think anybody in the room, except Miss Wellington knew that 'incipient' meant 'in the beginning stages'."

"Actually I think that's good for us to know. We can call ourselves incipients rather than…"

I tried to trip her, and even though she didn't go down, she did take the hint. "C-ya Carrie," I said after we came to the first floor landing. I went down a hallway and on to the horrors of Pre-Calculus.

Two mind-numbing periods later, at lunch, Yvonne, Joey, Carrie and I all took our usual table in the lunchroom. We had been friends for a long, long time. After most of our lunches had been engulfed and the immediate worries of the day were off our chest we started throwing my apple between the lot of us. Whoever had it when the bell rang for next class could eat it. "Have any of you guys seen the new girl?"

"She's so pale but she wears that black lipstick," Yvonne said, "Blah!"

"Maybe she's not wearing lipstick, maybe those are her lips," Joey jested.

"She's not pale." I objected.

"You just think that because you like the way she looks," Carrie responded.

"No. I… just wouldn't say that she's _deathly_ _pale_."

"You're an abomination," Carrie insisted. "If she isn't as pale as a piece of paper then its not that bad. Let me guess. Knowing you, I'd bet you call it being pleasantly light."

I bit my lip. "_Changing_ the subject, does anyone know where she lives?"

"Yeah," Yvonne said, "I saw her moving into the Dobson house this morning."

"The Dobson house?" Joey said incredulously, the apple fell out of his hand and rolled onto the floor. Carrie and I had like expressions of mingled horror and interest. The Dobson house had been empty forever. Rumors persisted that something bad had happened there once, and while accounts varied, nobody with their head on straight would live there.

"What a creepy old house." Carrie asked. "Did you see her parents?"

"Its funny but no. I was walking by and I heard some moving men, and I saw her but I didn't see her parents, or even another car she could have driven over in."

"What, just causally walking by?" Joey said, insinuating something vague.

"Yeah, I can go on walks every now and then, is there something wrong with that."  
"No its just taking a walk isn't something you do. I bet you drive your car to your mailbox when the mail comes."

"Big words from a junior," Yvonne said, her eyes narrowing.

"I wonder how old she is?" I thought out loud, picking up the apple and setting it on the table.

Joey looked at me, raising and lowing his eyebrows. "You dog."

Yvonne was sticking her tongue out at me, and Carrie was rolling her eyes. "Darn you people," I said blushing. That wasn't what I meant at all. I was going to proceed, but I saw Helga standing awkwardly in the lunchroom doorway. "I'm going to invite her to sit down with us."

"What she's here?" Joey said turning his neck around to see her. He didn't have a class with her, as of yet, so he wanted a look-see. "Why Maddy?"

"Maybe we can find out more about her. Besides, I want to." That was the only reason I really needed. Canonized or not I was the head of the group, and when they weren't mocking me for my taste in girls they doing what I said (usually).

I rushed over to the door, Helga watching as I got nearer. "Hi," I said, "I'm Maddy Simon, I'm in your second period." Her mouth curved in a gentle smirk. 'yeah, yeah,' I thought, hating Miss Wheeling all the more. I bet I looked like a real fool just then, but my daring kept me going. "Hey, you're new to the school; why don't you eat lunch with us today?" Her eyebrows rose. "That is to say with me and my friends."

She looked over me with her faded gray eyes. Whether or not I really am a connoisseur of many things I have looked into a good many eyes in my lifetime. In all my experience I have never looked into eyes like those. _Ghost eyes_, that's what I'd call them.

"No thank you," she said. Her voice was soft and whispery. It was not to be compared with anything I had heard before. It was entirely unique. "I never eat lunch."

And she just walked off. The bell rang and I saw her in those long, conservative clothes, strolling away. It was like this was some part of an old movie. Joey tossed me my stuff as he passed me on the way out and I waved my approval. When I looked back she was gone. It wasn't mysterious; there were dozens of niches to disappear into, not to mention doors, halls, and the occasional stairwell. All the same it was a rather smooth getaway for someone new to the school.

'Helga…' I thought, 'What an old fashioned name…'

After School

After school it was the same as any other rough day. We were at my house, surrounded by a waist high stonewall and relaxing in the back yard. Yvonne and I were lying next to each other in the hammock, Joey was sitting at our picnic table and Carrie was across from him, all under the shadow of my great apple tree. "She's weird," Carrie said. It was her favorite word; although sometimes, it had been accused, she uses it merely to get at us; a theory yet to been proven.

"She's pretty," I said, "Have any of you guys seen anyone like her?"

"No. I have her in sixth," Yvonne said, "And after she told Mr. Smith what she was doing in his class she didn't open her mouth again."

"Joey don't you have any classes with her?"

"Nope. I guess I should have given my Buda statuette and extra rub on the tummy this morning, but its too late now."

"Yeah, you gotta' keep Buda happy or lucky you are not."

"Actually I did skip history today, so one in a million, maybe I do have a class with her."  
"Yeah and one in a million she finds Maddy attractive," Carrie said. I gritted my teeth as they all busted out in their best fake laughs. I was never going to hear the end of this one.

"HA, Ha, ha, Caroline," I said. It's a mother's trick to use somebody's full name when you're slightly put off, but it's a leaders trick to use it just before you go off on a tangent. "She is good looking though; don't you think?"

"Stop saying that," Yvonne said, "What about us?"

To the causal passerby Yvonne and I look close, and even though we do exchange the occasional peck on the cheek, we're nothing to each other. "Marry me Yvonne," I said grabbing her hand and looking into the small slant of her eye I could see without actually moving my head.

"Bite me," she said quietly, pulling her hand out of my grasp and turning her head more so I couldn't see her eye at all. She apparently had forgotten that when you are sharing a hammock with somebody and you're practically lying on top of them it's hard to pull away.

"But I worship you," I said grabbing her hand back and starting to kiss it. I was halfway to her elbow before she pulled out of my grip again and got out of the hammock. "Yvonne, don't be so melodramatic," I taunted after her.

"I'm going," she said.

"Yvonne, c'mon," Joey said.

"Mind your own business," she said walking out an opening in the low stonewall.

"Yvonne!" I shouted. She stopped dead in her tracks. It was almost like I had petrified her. "Come back here and tell us what's wrong," I demanded.

"Maddy," Joey said trying to hinder my wrath. I clapped my hands and everybody jumped.

"Things haven't been the same Maddy," Yvonne said, as if to herself.

"Look at yourselves, acting like a bunch of darklings under surveillance. I'm just curious, is all. Who is she? A faceless nonconformist? A Goth? Or is she just so poor she has to scrape the bottom of the barrel at the Salvation Army to dress like that." They all were admiring their shoelaces. "Lets not make a mountain out of a molehill. If you guys would rather go back to finding shapes in clouds then lets, I mean almost anything is better than being laughed at." None of them looked up, I didn't know whether they were feeling bad or just hating me but no use in beating a dead horse.

"Yvonne come back," I said getting out of the hammock, "you can have it to yourself for a while." She came back but didn't crawl into the hammock but sat down across from me at the table.

"Curiosity killed the cat," Carrie said under her breath, as though she didn't want any of us to hear her say it. I gave her a wayward glance and started talking about the weather.

She's a Vampire!

She's a vampire, we decided. There was no other explanation. All the facts added up. It was Carrie that put it together first. "Helga has to be a Vampire," she declared. "She never eats… she wears those old fashion clothes… she keeps totally to herself…"

The lot of us had debated it for a while. It had been three days since she had first come to school and she stuck out like a dark stain on a white shirt. She could be seen coming from a mile away, and few tried to hide the mild, if not raging, interest they had in the new girl. It's a real wonder how she bared being stared at all day long. However sooner rather than later our little group started to show more of an interest in her than I did (almost). Joey did have that History class with her, and he hasn't missed it since he found out. Likewise Yvonne has started running again and this time the commitment was founded upon espionage thereby she hadn't missed a day. As sudden as this might seem, it only being three days later and all, we found ourselves gathered across the street from her house, long after the sun went down.

"And she's pale as death," Carrie finished. Coming in from the path adjacent from the church and keeping off the paved road it was remarkably easy to get very near her house without being seen. There were no street lamps out here the venue was dark, and inside the house not a blessed light shone through.

"Where is Helga?" Yvonne asked. All around the house Culver's woods shook and shivered in the cold night wind. Pale in the light of the full moon the wall enclosing the back and sides held fast against the wind. "The house is totally dark."

"She's in there," I replied. We had to spy on her. We had to know. To find the truth. Hiding behind a low hedge on the opposite side of the street we weren't here because this was who we were. We couldn't help ourselves. "There in the dark," I whispered.

"Weird," Carrie muttered to herself.

"I tried to talk to her in school today," Joey reported, his sight never shifting, "but she walked right past me. She wears those heavy, black shoes but her footsteps don't make a sound. It doesn't add up."

"Why would anyone move into this horrible old house?" Carrie asked.

"I would," Yvonne said.

"Yeah but you're crazy," Carry replied. "It's so far from town, there's nothing but wood all around, and I bet that place would collapse upon itself if it weren't for our forefathers integrity and lack of shoddy things to build with."

"Your faith in mankind is inspiring, Carrie," Yvonne said. Carrie took a sidestep toward Yvonne and Yvonne backed up.

"Privacy," I said. "Vampires crave their privacy." I looked hard at the house looking for anything suggesting that I was right in my conviction that Helga was there. I like to think that I have the best eyesight among the four of us, but if you ask any of them, doubtlessly they have the best in their own mind. The one thing I did have going for me was that I wanted it more than anybody. I wanted to think she was home, that she was a vampire, that something was different about this girl. I could taste the winds of change and she might be the sail that would blow my friends and I into new waters. Dark or light any change would be appreciated.

"Maddy are you alright?" Joey asked. "Your head looks like it's going to pop a vein." My head slowly turned his way as I fought off a sudden urge to tear out his throat. But! Something caught my eye. A blur of gray crossed an unnaturally dark window.

'Curses,' I thought. There had gone my chance. My head in mid-turn I made a decision. "Come on," I whispered, starting across the road, "Lets go take a closer look." We crept across the road. The silence was incredible. Only the whispers of the wind rushing through the trees and having at the old stonewall coursed through the night air, as constant as waves pulsing on an ocean beach. We pushed our way through the tall weeds that constituted the plant life of the front yard and crouched under the large front window. Huddled together against the cold, damp shingles along the front of the house, the window ledge inches above us, I positioned myself to take a look.

"Be careful Maddy," Carrie whispered, "Helga might see you."

"Careful is my middle name," I whispered back.

"I thought your name was Maddy all-night McKnight," Joey whispered.

A smile grew on my face, "Heh, heh, heh, I just let the ladies call me what they like." Yvonne punched my knee and the smile on my face disappeared. "Okay, everybody be quiet now."

I lifted my head just high enough to see inside. There was a pale square of moonlight pouring into the room, haltered by the dust-smeared glass. As I looked harder into the house a spacious living room became apparent, and I could see bulk objects scattered about. A long couch. Two old chairs. I almost pushed my head up against the window in disbelieve when I saw Helga standing in plain sight.

"She's in there," I muttered to myself.

"Do you see her?" Yvonne asked.

My brain shifted back to reality for the time being. "Yes, I see her. She's standing in the dark. I think she's looking at herself in a mirror, but I can't tell."

"Get down, let me look," Joey said.

"Give a guy a chance. It's a tall mirror I see it now."

"Does she have a reflection?" Joey said excitedly. "Vampires don't have reflections."

I looked at him menacingly. "What? You think I don't know that? Just let me see if she has one then you can look." I squinted back into the dark, half-heartedly looking for a reflection. She was wearing a nightgown that still went from her shoulders down to the floor, but her hair was down, and what I couldn't see through the dust and glass I filled in with my minds eye. When one of the girls coughed into her hand I came to the startling realization that I was in the perfect position to take one below the belt. A startling thought if there ever was one, and judging by the way Yvonne had been acting lately there would be no precursor to the fact, only a silence shatter yowl of pain, and my rush to the hospital. Fearing this I shifted all thoughts back to the mission. Does she have a reflection? I looked harder than ever but I couldn't see one. "It's to dark to see," I told my friends.

Suddenly Helga turned toward the window. For half a second my world stopped. She seemed to look right at me. I ducked under the windowsill and withheld a surprised shriek.

"What happened?" Carrie asked eagerly.

"She looked at me," I exhaled.

"Did she see you?" she asked, her dark eyes growing large with the thrill.

"I don't know, but lets hope not."

"Why was she there in the dark?" Yvonne shot out.

"Was she floating or walking?" Joey asked.

"Did she have a reflection?" Carrie echoed.

All good questions, but none of them I could answer. This was proving to be more exciting than I supposed it would be. "We'll come back tomorrow, but I think she'll be on guard tonight."

"Yeah, good going, pretty boy," Yvonne mocked. I growled and shook my fist.

We sat silent for a moment longer; them crawled over to the side of the house and dodged behind the stonewall. If she had been standing on the porch then we might have had some explaining to do, but then again she might have had to explain what she was doing out on the porch. Actually we would have been toast but almost doesn't count. Behind the wall we walked back to Yvonne's house, the others firing questions at me like it was some sort of press conference. And of course I had to dodge most of them with an, 'I don't know,' or the more powerful, 'I said I don't know, get out of here with that,' and the almighty, 'Darn you people and you cockamamie questions!'

The truth of the matter was I was more desperate for information about her than they were. I couldn't tell in the moonlight but her lips looked redder, her skin looked paler, and her black hair was on the hard drive now, I would only forget that if the whole system went down, and that's not going to happen today or tomorrow. I hope.

Yvonne was one good sport when it came to her taste in cars. She had a nice red clown car that we could all just fit in if Joey held his breath. However for most rides we all went for her truck. It wasn't so fancy looking but it was comfortable and reliable. Joey and Carrie were the first to be let off; they lived the furthest away, but only two blocks from each other. When it was just Yvonne and I things got interesting. She had an odd look in her eye when she first asked, "What was she wearing, Maddy?"

I should have seen it coming, but even if I had, one can hardly prepare for those loaded questions. And to state the obvious that was a loaded question. "A nightgown, as far as I could see."

"Could you see her feet?"

"No."

"Hmmm…" she said thinking, as we drove back to her place. I always walk home if the situation allows, its part of my creed.

"Yvonne?" I asked.

"What?" she said avoiding my stare.

"What's gotten into you lately?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Its like you turned into an ice queen. Do my innuendos get on your nerves, or something?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Why would I be warm in the first place?"

"Ouch…"

"Quit whining Maddy. Like you've been the all loving sun of kindness, blessing each moment with warmth and understanding."

I opened my mouth to say, 'And I never will be,' but I gathered that this wasn't the right time for hurtful sarcasm.

"I mean once upon a time I used to love to sit in the sun's light and tan, or run around but now every day is another problem I don't like. What if Helga is a Vampire?"

"Listen," I started, "I know you don't mean to be such a downer, but don't make a mountain out of a molehill. Sure life is different now, I mean we'll be graduating in a few months and after that then what? Joey and Carrie have another year of school, so there go two support pillars."

"One, its eight months to graduation genius; and two, that's not what I mean."

"I know what you're talking about, but I don't have the answers Yvonne. If I did then I wouldn't keep them from you. Why would I? The thing is everyday is another mountain to climb but just grit through it."

We pulled into her driveway and got out of her car. We met in front of it, and I grabbed her shoulders. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and asked, "Are you going to be alright?"

She jolted out of my hands and turned around. She didn't like being treated like a child, but it had already played itself out.

"See you in school tomorrow," I said, as a farewell. She walked into her house without a response, and I eventually started home.

Helga has a Cold Shoulder

As odd as Yvonne might act neither her nor the rest of us could hide our interest in Helga. We met across from her house every night. We hid in the hedge across from her house. When we thought we could, we crossed the street and hid in the weeds, hard-pressed against the house. We peered in the front windows, and snuck around back to see in through the kitchen. We were looking for anything… Helga, her parents, a coffin… Some nights we saw a light on in an upstairs window around back. Most nights there were no lights on at all.

Every now and then one of us saw Helga. Always in her nightgown, usually looking in a mirror, or wandering the rooms. We never saw her parents. We never saw anybody else at all. We became obsessed with Helga. So many impossibilities surrounded her. How could she live on her own, she was only a junior, like Joey, and Carrie. Her imagined past was fascinating, Helga from Germany with the dark hair and gray eyes, she had to be ancient.

We tried to talk to her in school but while staring at us with those ghost eyes she never even pretended to be friendly. I personally invited her to a basketball game one Friday night, but she said she didn't like basketball. I told her that I didn't either, quite frankly, but if she wanted to catch a movie or something… She slowly shook her head and walked past me in the hall. That went pretty well for a train wreck. But it ended like most of our attempts to get invited to her house. Once Joey asked if he could go back to her house with her to copy down her history notes.

"Hey Helga," he asked her after class let out. "Can I come to your house today after school?"

"Why?" she asked.

"I just want to go over history notes. That's okay isn't it?"

"I'm not going to be home tonight."

"Why not?" Joey asked before he could stop himself. She just looked back with those ghost eyes, and that nonchalant stare. After a pause, "All right, how about tomorrow after school?"

"It's not a good idea," she whispered mysteriously.

She never changed her hairstyle. She never wore a serious change of clothes. It was impossible to tell if she had a single black skirt and gray blouse combination which she wore every day, or a closet full of them. Every day black ringlets fell down in different places around her pale composition of her face. The only time she ever wore anything different was when we saw her at night in her nightgown. She let her hair down at night, we couldn't tell exactly how long it was, but it reflected the light of the moon like an obsidian mirror. It became apparent after a few weeks that she was on to somebody watching her but she couldn't prove it was us, and we tried very hard to disassociate from the hooligans watching her at night. As far as she was concerned they were watching us to, but from experience I can tell you not to start up a conversation about stalking with the person your stalking or they validate their concerns.

Then one day I grabbed her hand. It was during the first pep assembly of the year, we were standing in line to get in, and by chance we ended up next to each other. She gave me the usual gentle smirk she always gives whenever I come within a fleeting mile of her. As we were standing there, after exchanging mutual nods, on an impulse I grabbed her hand. It was compulsory; I couldn't help myself. I had to feel her touch. I had to know for myself, I had to know what she felt like. I snatched up her hand and squeezed it. It was cold. I had to know if it felt alive and it felt as cold and still as a winter's day when the sun drifts behind endless clouds. Her touch was as cold as the grave. As cold as… Death.

'She is a vampire,' I decided.

The feeling was like feeling the pain crawl up your arm after touching a hot stove, first there was the initial shock that said 'ouch', then the full blown affect of what you have done forces its way into you brain and crawls around like a dozen hungry ants. When I grabbed Helga's hand I first felt that cold, the lifelessness, but when I realized what I was holding I snatched back my hand as if in pain.

Likewise she clasped her pale hands together and gazed at me with those pale, and almost frightened eyes. "Its so cold in here," she whispered. "Don't you think so, Maddy?"

It was the first time she had said my name, and it sent a shiver down my back. It was that night we met once more and snuck into her back yard. There was only a sliver of moon, and the yard was dark except for a dim light in the upper window. The shade was drawn but we could see Helga's silhouette moving back and forth inside.

"She's all alone in there," Carrie whispered, "No parents. No friends. No one."

"She's probably hundreds of years old," I said.

"She doesn't look it," Joey said.

The girls giggled, but their laughter was cut short as the light went out. "She must have gone to bed," Yvonne guessed. "I wonder…"

"What?" I asked.

"Do you think _she_ has to sleep in a coffin?"

"_She_?" I mused. I was just about to reply when something fluttered low over the roof. We all looked up. A bat?

"All vampires sleep in coffins," Joey whispered.

"They must…" I interrupted, still somewhat dazed.

"They sleep in coffins lined with the dirt of their own graves," he finished.

"She must have some ancient stuff in that coffin," Carrie said.

I zoned back in and said, "I want to see Helga's coffin." I took a step closer to the gnarled old tree that grew in the backyard. We were all conveniently hiding behind it and I noticed one of its branches grew near enough to her bedroom window to look in. I had to risk it.

"Maddy come back," Carrie said.

"I will, after I see her coffin."

"The blind's down, stupid," Yvonne said. For once in my miserable existence I stood corrected. I looked at her. There was a second there when I thought about taking up a fighting stance and throwing a few friendly punches, I felt so stupid. However I had a better idea.

"Hand me a rock."

"Don't you dare," Carrie said exasperated.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," I said. Yvonne was smiling.

"I don't think he has the nerves," she said.

"You guys this is illegal. We could go to jail, and have to buy her a new window and nobody at school would forget it." I would probably have sided with Carrie's argument but I had to show Yvonne up, Yvonne herself probably had the same thought in mind; so Joey would have to decide. If it was a tie then by default Yvonne and I could just go back to being on edge without claiming victory or defeat.

We all looked his way and he shrugged. I saw in his face that he was dying to know, just like the rest of us, but he had a reputation to keep up and a screw up this big would mean we don't talk to anybody but each other for the rest of our high school careers.

I gritted my teeth as I started, "Fine. I'll just climb the tree and _'will'_ the blinds to come up. If she's in a coffin then she probably won't even hear it."

"And what if she's not in a coffin," Yvonne said, jeering in my direction.

"Listen, Yvonne," I said in a shaky, dangerous voice, "I know you're not trying to be such a downer but drink blood and die, okay?"

"Bite me," she said, in mild approval of my threat. I don't get her…

Regardless it was time to climb a tree. I grabbed a low branch and started to climb. The bark was cold, and the branches gave a little under my weight. After climbing about five feet off the ground I looked back at my cowardly comrades. They had circled the tree and were peering up at me with anxious faces, even Yvonne, though she tried hard to make it look irrelevant, like my death would mean nothing to her. That Yvonne… always thinking of other people.

Helga's window was still high above me so I continued. Up I climbed. The scratch of the bark was but a tickle, the quivering of the branches below me as I forged upward was like a mighty ship careening on the waves. Nothing scared me, I was unstoppable and fearless. And yet oddly enough when I was about halfway to her window, a good fifteen feet off the ground, I found myself swearing I'd never climb another tree if I made it out of this one unscathed. The leaves closed in around me, choking out the moonlight, branches held fast to my clothes, and twigs scratched symbols into my face as I plowed upwards. Steadily I climbed higher, and as strong branches grew fewer I held fast to the tree with both my hands and the unorthodox grip I had round it with my legs. (Climbing poles doth a good lover make.)…(Forget I said that.) The tree creaked and groaned under my weight as I got higher, and the wind seemed to push harder trying to throw me off. After about five tedious minutes I was high enough to look into her window. I steadied myself and pushed aside a few leaves just to form a small triangle, through which I could look into Helga's room.

The angle of the moon was perfect that first second I looked into Helga's room. The entire side of the house was washed in white moonlight. The glare was not so overbearing that I couldn't see a face looking back at me from the room. I saw her! Helga was there; she was looking out at me, her eyes glowing evilly. Her impossibly pale face pressed against the windowpane, it seemed at first she couldn't see me, but as I realized just what she was doing our eyes met and she went running back into the darkness of her house.

Too startled to cry out I stared to slip, the quavering strength in my hips started to give I slid down an inch. Realizing what was happening there was no time for real thought, and as the pieces came together in full, that is to say either pull it together or fall, I shouted, "No," and grabbed on with all my upper body strength. I stopped sliding but there was no doubt she had seen me now.

"She saw me!" I called down to my friends. "Helga saw me."

"Maddy, come down here," Yvonne called up, worried. I didn't need her to tell me but I sure appreciated the enthusiasm.

"Get out of here," I told them.

"Hurry Maddy," Joey pleaded.

"I'll be fine, just don't let her catch us all spying on her."

"But we can't…" Carrie started.

"C'mon lets go," Yvonne finished for her.

They took off and I kept on truckin' down the tree. When my feet touched the ground seconds later I completed my oath to never do something quite as stupid as that again and made for the passage between the house and the stonewall. My friends must have made it, I didn't see them, but now it was between Helga and I. As I had to virtually fall down the tree to get down as fast as I did, she must be tearing down the stairs this very second. I made for the street, hoping for the best but it was not to be.

The front doors flew open and she rushed out. Helga moved quickly. Down the front steps, across the weed choked front yard. Before I was half way through the alley my salvation was deterred, that is to say, my path was blocked. I stopped and observed with a growing dread as Helga stormed toward me.

"I know you've been watching me," she cried angrily. "You better stop it. I'm warning you." I had to admit, she was cute when she was angry. Her hands were balled in tight fists, her eyes narrowed threateningly at me, and she had a shaky frown. Suddenly, in the silence of a second I realized she was trembling slightly.

Feeling all my curiosity combust within me, I called out like a shot, "Helga! Are you a vampire?"

We stood there. The trees whispered all around us, the pale moon peeked over the house, trying to get a better look; the wind blew with its quiet fury all around us, our eyes never parted. The stirring air pushed her hair and her long nightgown to and fro, and the moonlight reflected the waves in her hair, where it extended beyond the shadow of the house. She moved closer, her gray eyes pulsing with an unknown quintessence and whispered, "Yes."

The very wind around me seemed to join in the chorus of victory, the day was mine, my entire being filled with relief and joy. "Show me your fangs," I pleaded eagerly. Standing closer to me in the moonlight as it crept around the house I could see her face so much better. Her lips were about ten shades darker than crimson, but they were indeed red not black. Her long black hair was contained by a white ribbon which hadn't been attended too well. As strands of hair tore loose more and more if it was at the disposal of the wind blowing in waves and ripples.

"No," she responded. "You show me yours first."

I looked at her hesitantly. An odd request catching me somewhat off guard, but after a moment I decided it was a reasonable demand. I let my fangs down; they extended about half an inch below my lower lip. I looked on eagerly to see if she was impressed, but she let out a frightened squeal and stumbled back, away from me. "What is it?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

"I was joking," she cried, quickly deteriorating to tears. "I though you were joking too."

"Helga!" I shouted in responsible anguish. My friends came into view from the hedge across the street. I wished that they had waited a second longer, I was so embarrassed to tell her my secret and just be laid to waste as I had been. "No way!" I said, perhaps louder than I should have. "We're all Vampires, Joey… Carrie… Yvonne…" I said looking at them each in turn.

Following my glances she looked at the three all of whom were crossing her weed choked front yard. She screamed with all her might and leaning against the house began to shrink in front of us. Of course not like a shirt shrinks in a cold wash, but she began to pull herself into a ball. We were so disappointed in Helga. My friends and I had such high hopes. And yet, since the mystery of Helga had been solved, and we found it quite unsatisfactory, it could quickly be remedied. My friends knit a tight circle around Helga. In a few minutes she would be a vampire too…

My friends stood her up. "No," she pleaded. "Please, no. I'll do anything." Between the sobs and groveling sighs she didn't struggle as much as most of us had when our time came round. I chuckled to myself.

"Wait," I said. I saw them stop, after just getting her to stand on her own two feet. She looked at me then, with the last glimmer of hope. She didn't want to be a vampire. She wasn't like us. I chuckled again, harder. "Let me have the first bite," I suggested, "If you don't mind I would like to be the first." She started thrashing around but I walked nearer and the fear of death froze her in place. "Don't worry," I whispered as the wind howled all around us, "it won't hurt."

I was seconds away from sinking my teeth into that beautiful neck, just below the dress line, so near to the heart, when I felt it. It was not at all gentle or subtle, but quite to the contrary; Joey had just thrown an impressive sucker punch. Now far be it from me to praise another's violent behavior, especially towards me, but Joey knew how to throw a punch and I was slightly bewildered at why he would do such a thing. However I could only process such a thought after I had slipped out of my daze and into a more painful state of conscious finding myself facedown on the ground some distance away. It had happened very quickly and as I looked up, just seconds after the fact, they were rushing Helga across the street and into the woods. I forced myself up and started to chase after them, stumbling on every rock in that stupid yard. Rebellion is a girl dog in heat.

Flee to the Darkness

She was being held. She couldn't move. She tried to scream out but it wasn't so. Everything was going dark. He was getting closer. She couldn't look. She was going to faint. It was almost the end. Something happened, a loud crack. Someone picked her up; her captors were carrying her away.

"We'll have to take her to the old chapel," she heard a girl's voice say after they had run some distance.

"But we can't go in there," another girl protested.

"Carrie, you get back to Maddy," said a boy. "I don't think he's going to like this little development."

"But I want to help…" she started.

"Believe me you will," the boy interrupted. "We have to draw a line somewhere."

"Can we stop him?" the first girl asked.

"I sure hope so," the boy said.

She could hear some footsteps going the other way, and one of the shadows she could see, even with her eyes closed, passed away.

"Helga!" she heard the boy speak, more forcefully than he had yet spoken. "Helga, wake up."

"I am awake," she whispered into his ear. He was right on top of her; he was the one carrying her away.

"I don't think she hurt herself back there, but I don't think she'll be up for defending herself," the boy said.

"Helga how do you feel?" the girl said.

She opened an eye enough to see Joey, a boy she hardly knew from history class, carrying her away, and besides him Yvonne breathing heavily from trying to keep up with him.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"She'll be fine, but how about you, Yvonne?"

"I can keep up till the chapel."

"The chapel? You mean the old church?" Helga asked.

"Yes, the old church. Have you been there yet," Joey said starting to huff.

"I only drove past it on my ride into town."

"So much for that."

"What if she had been there?" Yvonne asked.

"She might have found a good place to hide. Do you have a flashlight?"

"No, I wasn't expecting it tonight."

"Helga I hate to ask but are you wearing shoes?"

"No," she said, now back in the loop and speaking like a cold mountain wind.

"Yvonne you don't think you could?"

"I couldn't hold her if I tried."

"How far is the Chapel?"

"Just past those trees."

"All right, put her hair back up, we have to look our best before the lord."

"But we can't go in there."

"You can't, you're not old enough yet, but I can bear it."

"Joey I don't think that's a good idea," Yvonne said, ominously.

"Do you see something?" he asked.

"No, but I have a bad feeling about this whole thing."

"Yvonne, do up her hair, if were going into the house of the lord its best not to temp him."

"Joey it doesn't matter."

They passed the trees and came upon the road and a cloudy open sky. In the dim light of the moon several of the headstones could be seen in the long abandoned churchyard. Joey put Helga down and put his hands on his knees trying to shrug off the stitch in his side. Suddenly a loud scream raged through the whole countryside.

"Oh-no," Yvonne said. "Carrie."

"Helga do up your hair and come with me."

Not having any real alternative, other than a foolhardy attempt to run for it, she pulled hundreds stray hairs into one single beautiful braid and tied it back.

"Joey!" Yvonne shouted.

"I know. I mean I don't know. Do what you will Yvonne, run away if you have to, but I have to see to her first."

"What if he…" she said starting to cry, "killed Carrie?"

"I know…" he said looking regrettably down for a moment of shame.

"Carrie will be alright," Helga interrupted. The two looked at her, angry at her consolation. What did she know about it? "I mean Maddy wouldn't kill her would he?"

The two looked ominously at each other, Yvonne in fear, Joey in concern. "Just promise me that after she's situated you'll come back and help."

"If I can I will return, but if I perish then you must make a stand." Joey said, looking across the forest all around. Across the church the clouds were moving in through Culver's woods. The mist would be dominating in within an hour; perhaps there was some hope in Helga's cause. But if not… They shouldn't get their hopes up. "No promises, Yvonne. No oaths, no covenants, nothing of the sort. We are acting on what we, and what others do, not what anyone says."

Yvonne looked at him, them toward the forest. He was coming. She nodded and Joey and Helga made for the church. The two of them were walking up the old paved road. It wasn't cold but she couldn't stop shaking. Joey noticed this and grabbed her hand. Both of them were freezing but it wasn't for mutual comfort that he did it, but as a friendly gesture. Before long they were at a side gate in a tall wall. Long ago it had rusted over, and whether or not it had a lock long ago, today a stiff push was all it needed and it gave way. Helga entered first without a second thought but now it was Joey who stood petrified with fear. There hands still together she almost pulled him in but he had one last thing to do before he would enter. He took off his shoes. He remembered reading somewhere that that was what was done when you entered a holy place and he felt he should.

It was not the right time for odd quirks but Helga knew this wasn't the time or the place to say anything. He took his first step onto the ancient ground of the church lot. He was shaking harder than she was.

"Joey," she started, "you don't have to do this."

"Its okay," he said.

They made their way through the graveyard and into the church, and a feeling came upon Joey. It can only be likened to altitude sickness. His head started expanding and his brain didn't like it. He had to sit down, he had to lye down, he couldn't take it. He collapsed right on the stairs leading to the front door.

"Joey!" Helga called, kneeling next to him and grabbing his shoulder.

"Hel-gaaaa…" he whispered.

She put her hands on his head and waited. After a second he looked up at her. It was a touching moment for him; creatures of darkness wait for nobody and are waited upon by nobody. As she helped him into the chapel he could feel the very ground beneath his feet grow steadily warmer. Inside there was a large cross that had fallen from the roof when it caved in. The crucifix was leaning up on a pew halfway through. When he saw the holy sign the poor retch recoiled in horror and shriveled up like a snail. Seeing his pain, but not wanting to defy its power she stood between it and him. Out of sight is out of mind for a darkling and he returned to being in remarkable, yet bearable, pain. Helga pushed the cross off the pew so that it landed flat on the ground with a thud, and sat on it. Meanwhile he closed the door in his kneeling position then leaned against the secured threshold.

"Joey?" she asked.

"Kassimina Kassa," he hissed.

"Are you all right?"

He coughed, heavy, then answered, "I'll survive until the dawn."

"But I've seen you during the day, why do you say that."

"I'm sorry… if Maddy confused you… but we're more like… Darklings than… Vampires."

"What do you mean?"

"Dracula was hundreds of years old… and had drank the life of… thousands of people… before the light of day was his… ultimate bane. But for darklings… we can bare the sun… we prefer the night… of course… but……… Helga..."

"What?"

"Who are you Helga?"

"What do you mean?"

"Helga… with the long black hair… and the gray, graeae eyes… You are very beautiful to a darkling… you remind us of cloudy days… we can see in the light… without remembering… how much… we hate the sun… Helga… your eyes are as cold… as despairing… winter… Something tells me… that you don't like your name…"

"It was my mothers name," she confessed, "she was from the old country. But I never liked that name. Everyone knows a Helga in Germany. But my first name is Elmina. All my friends used to call me Elle, but I didn't like that either. Elmina was what I liked to be called."

"What happened…" Joey said, his breathing wavering, "to your friends?"

"They don't like me anymore. A boy asked me to a dance, and they like him more than they liked me, so they told him that I had to cancel but they could take my place. I didn't find out till the next day he wasn't coming, and they weren't apologetic and I wasn't forgiving. So I moved. Why stay somewhere when the people don't like you and nothing else is tying you down?"

"I suppose… your right… but what about… your parents?"

"…"

Joey looked at her, and she looked back. She was filled with compassion towards the dying creature, but she wasn't ready to tell him that.

"Are they… perished?"

"…"

"I suppose… its best I don't know… but then (Cough, cough)… who are you Helga?"

"Call me Elmina… please."

Joey wheezed out a laugh. "And you may call me Joseph… But I don't care… Joey… Joseph… it won't matter… a hundred years from now… I don't think I'll last till dawn now… I can feel this hallowed earth… tearing me apart… Its angry… but I'm glad… I could spend my last moments… in the house… of our lord…"

"Joey don't… Why did you, and Yvonne, and Carrie, do all this for me?"

Joey looked up. Then with what strength he had left he pushed himself up the wall so that he was standing at an angle. He pulled up the side of his shirt and revealed a large scar in his side.

"Can you guess… where this came from?" he asked. She shook her head. "World War One…I was a kid… Trying to help France… avoid invasion for quite… a while, but… I took one in the side and fell down… Then before I died… I felt some teeth sink into my neck… One of my comrades was a vampire… drinking the blood of the fallen… before they died… The murderer… I was tossed out with the other corpses waiting… to be buried… but when night came… it was healed… I was better… The first thing I did… was found my comrade… and shot him…in his sleep… It didn't work… He got up… and came at me… I tore him to pieces… and ran for my freedom… From Normandy I made… my way to Great Britain… where soon after peace was declared… I still remember singing… The White Cliffs of Dover… when peace was declared… I didn't know I was a… Vampire… until… Cough-COUGH"

"Joey!" she shouted jumping up and running to his side.

"Things aren't… like they used to be… Bloodlust is commonplace... Soulnessness is considered art… I can't stand the darkness… anymore…"

"Joey you can't be a hundred years old. Its not possible," she protested, hoping that this was some act of prestidigitation, but knowing that long before she would wish it, Joey would pass into the ages. He raised a hand, which was quickly aging, much faster than his face. He looked up at her with understanding eyes.

"Tell them… I'm sorry… Tell Yvonne… If… Yvonne… I can't… not yet…" he said breaking down to quiet tears.

"Joey, save your breath. You're not going to die."

She heard a rough sort of laugh coming from behind the door. "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in," Maddy called through the door. He kicked down the door, less than a foot from where they were sitting, and strolled in, right past them. "You're not going to die Joey, suck it up."

"Maddy!" Helga shouted angrily.

"Call him… Madison," Joey forced out.

"Ha! So mister one hundred and two himself cooperated willingly."

"Madison, how come you're not dying?" Helga demanded.

"The name," he commanded as he paced about right in front of them, speaking through gritted teeth, "Is Maddy. And as I insinuated this is no longer holy ground. You know its amazing the things you can do with a water key and a basic knowledge of black magic."

"But then why is Joey failing?"

"He's not."

"Merciful lord!" Joey cried, "Forgive me!" And he passed away, there on the floor of the forgone house of the lord.

"Joey?" Maddy asked. His face changed from an arrogant smile to an awe stricken frown. "Joey!" he shouted, his voice echoing on the sides of the church. He ran over to his unoccupied side, and crouching on the door he had just kicked down started to shed silent tears over the passing of his friend.

Helga was sad too, but the scenario did not permit a moment for mourning. At any second she would be back at the mercy of Maddy, and that wasn't a pleasant thought. She slowly backed off and, turning, made her way toward the cross in the middle of the chapel.

"Helga…" Maddy whispered, before she was out of earshot, "you will take his place."

She walked a bit faster as he stood up, the ruffling of his clothes all the warning she needed. The chapel was not large enough to ensure a chase, before he even started to pursue she was on top of the fallen crucifix. She faced him, but he was still looking at Joey.

"Where's Carrie?" Helga asked. "Where's Yvonne?"

"Like you care," he muttered still facing the wall.

The clouds that had been gathering previous were beginning to seep in through the larger holes in the wall and entire sections missing from the roof. Outside it was gathering in mass, the mist was growing thick and deep. It would have been quite beneficial for flight but where would she go? Where was an oracle when you needed one?

She picked up the cross keeping it behind her and out of his sight. Long ago it must have been a facsimile on the roof. It was thin and wooden, and by holding it at an angle she could easily hide it behind her. Slowly Maddy noticed something.

"Where are his shoes, Helga?"

She stood there silent and still. Maddy turned around his eyes positively illuminated with anger, his lips drawn back stretching his face in a offensive manner, and his white teeth looking sharp and anxious.

"You idiots!" he exclaimed. "You don't take off your shoes when you go into a church, not when you're a vampire!"

"He took them off himself, he wanted to respect the holy ground."

Maddy's eye twitched. "T-that does sound like Joey. I wonder what their problem was. What made you so different?"

"I'm me."

"I was asking rhetorically, genius-"

"Well then you should have made it sound rhetorical, Madison."

"Do you think I'm some sort of five year old who will get scared off by his 'Christian' name?" he asked, beginning to breath hard, like Joey had at first. He wiped away a tear and balled his fists as he started walking forward. "Joey is dead. My spell is wearing off. And I don't have a friend in the world. All because of some kraut named Helga."

"That's not my name either. But you can call me Helga. I don't care." Maddy was getting closer and she was seconds away from revealing the cross but she had one thing to say to him. "You don't have to lie to make friends, Maddy."

"What!" he shouted in anger and confusion. In a split second Helga brought the cross around and held mere feet from his face. Showing a Vampire, or even a darkling, a cross is like showing a normal person a hot coal, they can feel the heat without touching it. When Joey first saw the cross Helga now held inches from Maddy face, it felt like some one had opened a kiln nearby, and that was at twenty feet. (The one true difference between the two is that their system doesn't accept holy influence like we accept heat, we can deal with it if we have to, but they hate it so much their very being rejects it.) At the distance between Maddy and Helga it was like a grenade going off in his face. The initial effect threw him back, knocking him behind a pew, where, whimpering, he scurried away. The fog made him hard to follow, and Helga didn't particularly like seeing another's pain but it was either him or her.

He ran to the side of the chapel and headed for the back. Helga assumed that if she could beat him to the door then it would be all over. It was not a heavy cross to bear, but it was wooden and essentially not made for carrying. If it had been any less varnished then she would have gotten a sliver for attempting to pick it up, but that was the least of her worries. When she got to the door he was nowhere to be seen. The mist was everywhere and through the open door the outside was dark and shrouded in the unknown. The silence was only interrupted every few moments by the sounds of people lightly moaning outside. One she was sure, was that of Maddy running through the graveyard and tripping over every so many graves, but the other sound was a girl. She wanted to follow Maddy but she was so confused. Then she realized the only other girl conceivably moaning within her hearing would have to be Yvonne. Following Maddy would have to wait, she had to help her friends first and worry about her enemies later.

She left the cross standing at the doorway to the church and followed the sound of the voice back out the side gate and into the woods, barefoot. It was an odd combination when the dark of night met the white of the cloud. In the swirls of dark and pillars of gray she hardly make out the trees as she walked into the forest. And then it seemed that the moans came from the church. Disorientation was far too easily achieved, but after following the voice religiously she found her at the low stone and iron wall which encompassed most of the holy ground. One could easily step up on the wall, step over the iron spikes, back onto the other side of the stone ledge and hop onto the church lot. Unless of course standing on the church lot was certain death in which case it was entirely ill advised.

Yvonne was in a nasty predicament. She was tied to a pole that was sticking up from the other side of the fence. The pole, Helga soon realized, was her own water key, a very large, six-foot, metal cross that one sticks through a hole in the ground to turn sprinklers on. She currently didn't have a use for it but if she ever had a nice lawn it might come in handy. The cross was upside down and standing in the church lot, and Carries problems began and ended with it. Both her arms were pulled through the ironwork and her wrists were tied to the key. Thusly she couldn't pull it up because unless she could somehow overpower the cast iron there would be no point in trying. Additionally if she could have pulled up the cross she would have a hard time keeping it upside down, since seeing it horizontally would probably mean she wouldn't have to worry about what to do with her hands anymore. Most likely she wouldn't have to worry about any mortal fears again.

"Yvonne," she whispered when she close enough to do so without her voice carrying.

Yvonne jumped back startled. "Helga," she whispered back.

"Are you all right?"

Yvonne motioned her head toward her tied hands.

"I know but are you?"

"I guess."

"Then…"

Yvonne quickly turned to stare into the fog. Even though she heard it first Helga heard it presently, the sound of someone whimpering as they stumbled through a graveyard. She only needed about three seconds to dive behind the wall only ten feet away from where Yvonne was tied. From this distance she could only see the dim outline of Yvonne attached to the wall but she could hear as well as ever. The whimpering didn't necessarily grow louder as it got closer but at a certain point it stopped. Maddy had seen her, Helga was sure of this.

"I hope you're happy," he muttered.

"Let me go Maddy," Yvonne said trembling from some combination of fear and anger. Helga saw Maddy crawl over the fence dropping to the ground mere feet from her. He didn't bother getting up, he was quite comfortable lying on his side, face resting calmly on the cold dark earth. He was impossibly grateful for the chill in the air and the moist earth, it was eternally better than bearing the silent fury of what was best put by Joey as 'angry earth.'

"No," he said when he could speak.

"Maddy," Yvonne said, crying, "please…"

"Let Carrie see to you I don't feel like it."

"And I don't feel like sitting here all night, Maddy…"

"Drop it Yvonne, at least you're not going to end up like Joey."

"Oh-Nooo…" Yvonne moaned, placing her head on the fence trying to wipe her eyes with her wrist.

"That's not the worst of it," he said in a lightheaded sigh, "Helga's wandering around with a cross and I don't think…"

Maddy's voice trailed off. He was still mumbling but incoherently. "end… Unless somebody… that might… gibberakna…"

It was an odd moment, but it ended rather suddenly when a small drift in the fog blew through seconds after Maddy turned on his back. Helga screamed seeing his new face. It was pulled back in that same angry scowl except it looked like it had been melded on permanently. It was one of the nasty affects of surviving something you shouldn't have, coming out unscathed is rarely an option, and Maddy had lost his good looks.

His wide eyes, twitching, looked steadily over at Helga his already bare teeth closed even tighter in an angry scowl. "Said the blind man to the preacher, I see."

Helga sat there, every second getting wetter in the mist flowing past, wondering whether to run or fight. But the answer came in Maddy turning himself over and trying to get up. That is to say he couldn't. Turning over was quite a chore, but getting up or even into a push up position was well beyond him. It was a miserable sight to watch but it didn't last long either. All to soon he had given up and was lying there swearing at himself. Helga slowly got up and walked around him in a large circle back to Yvonne.

"Is it true," Yvonne asked looking at Helga like a scared little girl. Helga reckoned she looked the same way.

"What?"

"Joey?"

Helga bowed her head and Yvonne broke out in sobs. Helga tied to give Yvonne a hug but the inconsolable never appreciate gestures. She recoiled and Helga felt as alone as ever, but quietly started untying her bound hands. Very slowly in the mists next to them the dark figure lying on the ground forced its way up, leaning heavily on stone and iron fence next to him. It took only a second for some free hands to untie the cords binding Yvonne to the cross, and they both made a very big deal about keeping it upside down when she pulled her hands back. However when she first got the chance Yvonne fell down to her knees in a long, mournful sigh and lurking just beyond her the shadow in the ominous fog was Maddy's gnarled outline.

As Yvonne's figure dropped he snatched at Helga, his long fingers and sharp fingernails digging into different places on her throat as he made a final attempt to throttle her. She was not the reactionary type being both petrified with fear and having her air cut off at the same time (one terrible mix if you've ever so much as seen it) but his grip was tight and very soon, very, very soon…

She dropped the cross instantaneously hearing it bang on the iron fence as she flung herself in an opposite direction, trying anything to loosen that grip. However darklings can be just as stubborn as humans, Maddy probably wasn't going to see tomorrow but even if he did he wanted this taken care of. They both fell to the ground somewhere at Yvonne's feet, struggling. Neither of them noticed when she got up, they might have felt the extra space to roll around in, but it wasn't until Maddy loosened his grip, looking awestruck towards the wall. At first it was just amazement but soon it turned horrification. Yvonne had clambered over the spikes and was fuddling with the water key. The time had come.

Even if he had been faster there was nothing he could have done, almost as if it had been decided before it had even begun. Yvonne lifted the cross to about as far up as she could hold on, keeping it upside down, then dropped it forward onto the little fence, letting the extensions on both sides catch between two of the iron spikes as it swung right side up. Effectually it was devastating. Maddy, whom was lying on the ground and could not be pushed much farther back was put to an end. It was not as large as the cross inside, and size does matter depending as how close it is to the size our lord perished on, and if you get one exactly the right size then vampire can see it from a hundred miles away and still have the bahogies scared off them.

While Maddy hastily exerted one last breathe and fled to the darkness (closed his eyes forever), Yvonne was simply cowering in fear, with her forearms over her eyes, waiting for the worst. But it never came. Helga forced Maddy's cold and lifeless hands off her, got up and looked fearfully at Yvonne. There she was; timidly standing there, even in the mist, which was now thicker than ever, she could still see that she was as well as could be expected. That is to say she that her hair was wet from the fog, her legs were shaking from too much use in the cold, and her wrists were red from being restrained to the waterkey, but with a cross hanging inches away she looked pretty good for a darkling. She fearfully stared at Yvonne now, wondering what would happen.

"Yvonne," Helga whispered, tying not to even stir the air for fear the imbalance, or phenomenon, would undo itself and Yvonne would shatter like glass.

But ever so slowly Yvonne lowered her arms looked through the mist, right past the cross, and said, "Helga?"

At first she was unsure why but Yvonne started tearing off the top of her shirt, and as she approached the cross she could just see the top of a lacy bra and two little X's that were an unearthly white. "Is that where they bit you?" she asked.

"Yes, but its not supposed to be like that," Yvonne said in a thoroughly shocked voice, "They're suppose to be invisible or red, but…" Her voice trailed of as her knowledge waned. And then a ray of hope seemed to siphon through this revelation. "Joey," she said, starting to rush back through the graveyard. She disappeared into the mist in half a second, leaving Helga with Maddy's corpse. Most people feel uncomfortable next to a dead body but Helga felt somewhat triumphant. Indeed it was not the body of Maddy Simon who lay there but a darkling who seemed to be rotting like and old log. It was the smell that first made leaving a necessity rather than a choice. Helga had seen Joey die, she did not want to see him again, enough bad things had happened for her tonight, but it wasn't like anything else that happened this night was a choice. Most of it was like a fever dream, and while she did feel very light headed she was not in the mood to faint. She made her way to door of the church and saw Yvonne staring at the cross. Maybe by some will of nature the other cross only worked when it was pointing a certain direction, but now she was looking at the cross Helga had left prompt up by the door and only feelings were pulsing through her. She was free and she was just beginning to understand what that meant. No more umbrellas if the day was to bright, no more lying awake at night and praying to who knows what for help, for deliverance from a crushing need for blood. And just as strong were the feelings of everything that was hers again, a life that had been stolen, sitting for hours on the beach in the warm sun, and all those little things she hadn't even noticed before… Before all of this…

I cannot describe the surge of gratitude flowing through her toward that cross for not burning in her eyes or stinging in her soul. However as Helga drew near, those feeling subsided, as they always do over time, and her gears shifted back to the present. They walked inside hoping for the best, but Helga had known it before she had to see it. Joey was still dead. And just as Maddy had changed into a monster, Joey was changing into an old, old man, with a tired look on his stern face. His time had probably come and gone long ago, but that didn't make Yvonne feel better on the short term. They sat there for a moment before they realized that he to was beginning to fall apart at the seams. As they left the church the fog was definitely less dense and the bright sliver of moon was very high in the sky. Only the brightest stars could be seen at first but as they made they're way through the woods the mist dissipated altogether and they could look from one side of the universe to the other.

They could just see the Dobson house through the trees when they saw Carrie. She was lying on the ground, her eyes had sunken into her head already. From the looks of it she had been knocked out and had her hands tied to a tree but as she started to rot the skin gave way. Helga stood disgusted but Yvonne knelt down and started crying. It wasn't a theatrical mournful sob, but a high-pitched squeal that pops out when you can't breath right. It had been a long night for both of them but tomorrow Helga would wake up in her bed, alone as always, go to school, go home and go to sleep. But she found her situation, as bland and embittering as it was, second fiddle to what Yvonne was going to wake up to tomorrow. Her friends were dead and gone, tomorrow she would be alone, tomorrow there would be questions at school, tomorrow would be dark and desolate even with the sun burning as bright as it could. Those first few days are always the hardest. Helga would know.

After a few moments of silence, in clear memory of the fallen, Helga helped Yvonne up and led her to the house. Yvonne was walking through the already open oak doors when she realized where she was going. It is a wonder to walk into a house you've seen a thousand times from hundreds of angles from the outside. It was like looking in a real sized model of a house you formerly could see in but not touch, like an expensive dolls house; from the outside it might as well have been just that. But when you walk inside and everything is suddenly there, you can look from an inside perspective. The house was well furnished but the lack of carpets and paint made it look bare. Seeing so many things from the inside gave her a prickly feeling all over her body, immediately followed by an unstoppable surge of shame. The others didn't get to see this. The others didn't get to see Helga's house from the inside and the others wouldn't see anything ever again. She didn't know whether to blame herself or Maddy, she was confused and tired.

Her eyes almost popped out of her head a she realized something entirely beyond shame. She was tired! She hadn't been tired for almost a year, darklings don't get tired they just rest. But she, in fact, was sleepy. It sounded corny, and she knew she'd feel bad for saying it later buy she felt something other than bloodlust and despair. Something started happening, she clutched the flesh above her chest, she felt like she was having a heart attack, but it didn't hurt. She was free! She let go of Helga, whom was walking her over to the heavy couch, and nearly jumped into the air. However when euphoria hits one can hardly breathe let alone control one's self. She grabbed hold of a small table breathing hard and waited for the feeling to subside. It was like at the graveyard but it was more. She had been happy at the cross for not killing her, but now she was human again, she could be tired, she could be happy, there was no more quip pro quo. It was not herself or some part of her brain that induced this feeling, alone they cannot, but with every fiber of her being she felt something and it had manifest itself, as so rarely happens, with a confirmation.

Helga, oppositely, thought that it was curse recurring, and at first she could only perceive Yvonne starting to die. She briefly recalled something about her kind not being allowed in a house without being invited. But Yvonne didn't seem to be in any kind of pain. Not knowing what to do she just stood ready to catch her if she decided to fall, waiting for it to pass. Eventually, to some extent it did. Yvonne was the carefree spirit she was before she had ever met Maddy, Joey, or Carrie, and while she would miss them, some more than others I'm sure, you cannot plow a straight field looking back. Yvonne felt very sad in part of her being, but a gift from god was letting that be one part of her life and happiness be another. Thereby as the euphoria slowly drained away she understood that. However saving her from any decision making right then was that feeling of exhaustion. She made her way to the ancient long couch, Helga cautiously by her side all five steps, lied down and fell asleep at once.

Not expecting this Helga looked down at Yvonne and wondered. After what just happened she couldn't be sure, Yvonne looked different now. It wasn't like she would have thought, she didn't look like a human again, she always had whether she had ever truly been one during the first month of school or not, but now she seemed older. In those few seconds of wonder, her hair grew about six inches, something very unnerving to watch, and her fingernails were now almost an inch longer than her finger. Quite frankly it was more than enough for one night, and seeing that Yvonne was quite comfortable, she closed and locked the front door, put a blanket over her house guest and walked up to her room where earlier that night she had glared out the window, so threateningly, trying to see who was climbing her tree.

Being tired was not a blessing for Helga, nor was anything that had happened this night. She would have given her world not to have seen Joey die, and so soon after she had come to think of him as a friend. It was not fair. Nothing was fair for her, but she couldn't do anything about it. Like a grain of sand in the sierra she was only part of things bigger than her, never the center, if there was such a thing, never a star, only a mite, a peon. Being tired was not a blessing for Helga, she felt tired every night. Most nights she would eat, sleep and be dreary because tomorrow was another day. She was tired again tonight, and hungry. But as she climbed the stairs to the third floor she felt odd.

On the third floor of the house things were different. Downstairs there was some furniture, a Mirror that once belonged to her great-great grandmother, and the remnants of an old house. On the second were a few rooms that were still in use as a storage unit, but the third was fully loaded. Carpets on the floor, paint on the walls, a bathroom, a kitchen. All in all it was a nice little apartment for H. E. Neugenstrom. Most nights it was more than enough for her needs but something was wrong. She was hungry but she didn't feel like eating. She was tired, more tired than she had been in a long time, but she didn't feel like sleeping. Her feet were bleeding from walking barefoot in the woods but they didn't hurt until she washed them. She had an empty feeling in her that felt almost like an actual weight on her stomach. That night as a less than blissful sleep crept upon her, while she lay quietly on her big, fancy, lonely bed, she cried, silently, until she could no more.

Things are rarely as simple as they seem. Life is a beautiful thing and a curse at the same time. The world is what you make of it, and that is part of what separates the great man from the petty man. To many people, a sole man is nothing. What should they care? But if we are nothing then enlightenment brings understanding. Happiness is what living is for, and it is not found in the bottom of a cup of chocolate or on the top of mountain, but within ourselves; in what makes us happy, and others happy for us. Life is a very complex thing, and if we ever forget that, or underestimate it, then bad things will follow.

Yvonne, if you haven't noticed, doesn't really have her head on straight… but you knew that.


End file.
